June 2009

VWM is very pleased to welcome new member of the staff Monika Wiktorowicz. After studying piano, organ and musicology in her native Poland, Monika completed a post-graduate arts management diploma in London. Since 2000, she worked with renowned conductors and orchestras, dealing with all aspects of artist management at the highest level at IMG Artists, before joining VWM at the end of June.

photo: Sheila Rock

The critics’ response to Semyon Bychkov’s recent run of Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House has been unanimous. All the major UK broadsheets have declared it a resounding success with Semyon’s delivery described as ‘masterly’ by the Sunday Times, ‘compelling’ by the Independent, ‘exceptionally beautiful’’ by the Guardian and ‘alluring’ by the Daily Telegraph.

Following this, Semyon was on tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe performing Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 3 and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 1 with pianist Denis Matsuev in Frankfurt, Toulouse, Paris and London. Semyon now joins the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln where his busy schedule continues, first with a performance in Moscow, then back to Köln for their season finale which is to include a new work from their composer-in-residence Detlev Glanert.

photo: Frank Hülsbröhmer

Hugh Wolff is in Australia for a mini-residency with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. During the 7-concert run at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Hugh is first joined by Isabelle Faust to perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto as part of a programme featuring romantic classics. For his second week he is joined by Stephen Hough in a programme which includes Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No 2 and Walton’s Symphony No 1.

photo: Marco Borggreve

Masaaki Suzuki conducts Aldeburgh Festival 2009’s finale concert – a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Billed by the festival as ‘a welcome return to Aldeburgh for one of the most respected Bach interpreters of our time’, the concert takes place at the wonderful Snape Maltings Concert Hall on 28 June.

photo: David Thompson - EMI Classics

Stephen Kovacevich is in China for recitals in Shanghai’s Oriental Arts Centre and Beijing’s Forbidden City Music Hall on 31 May and 5 June. The programme is Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A D959 and Beethoven’s exquisite Diabelli Variations. Stephen recently released the Diabelli Variations on the Onyx label, picking up a Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award as well as being described as ‘a disc to treasure’.

photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Javier Perianes gives recitals in Tokyo at Oji Hall on 10 June and at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall on 15 June, performing repertoire by Chopin, Schubert and Debussy alongside works by a variety of Spanish composers. Next he joins the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to perform De Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain – an elaborate and brilliant set of symphonic impressions for piano and orchestra.

photo: Marco Borggreve

Gérard Korsten conducts Verdi’s La Traviata at the Opéra National de Lyon. Directed by Klaus Michael Grüber and with the cast to include Ermonela Jaho (Violetta), Edgaras Montvidas (Alfredo Germont) and Lionel Lhote (Giorgio Germont), the opera opens on 23 June with performances running through until 7 July.